Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a 2019 crossover sports video game developed and published by Sega for the Nintendo Switch. Based on the 2020 Summer Olympics, it is the sixth and final game in the Mario & Sonic series, a crossover between Nintendo’s Super Mario and Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog franchises, and the first since the Rio 2016 Olympic Games edition. It was also released for arcade cabinets in 2020. The game received mixed reviews, with praise for the presentation and gameplay, but criticism for a perceived lack of content for single-player, multiplayer features, and the story mode.

It is the final game in the series, as the International Olympic Committee chose not to renew Sega and Nintendo’s license to produce Olympic video games after 2020, in favor of a new partnership with nWay, who has developed mobile games for the subsequent editions, as well as exploring opportunities in non-fungible tokens and esports. Like previous Mario & Sonic titles, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a sports game featuring a crossover cast of characters from Nintendo’s Super Mario and Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series. 

The player, using one of the characters, competes in a multitude of events based on sports from the Olympic Games. The game features a variety of events; returning ones from previous Mario & Sonic titles include boxing, soccer, swimming, and gymnastics, while new ones include karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing. The game supports a variety of controllers, including the Joy-Con motion controllers. The game also features single system split-screen multiplayer, LAN multiplayer, and online play. An additional 2D Mode is also included, based on the 1964 Summer Olympics, and featuring 8-bit and 16-bit styles for Mario and Sonic, respectively.

These 2D Mode events have more limited controls and the option to enable a CRT overlay to further emulate the feel of games of that era. There are thirty-two playable characters in the game. Similar to the Wii U version of the previous game, the series’ regulars since the second game are playable in all events while the other twelve are only playable in one event as a guest. Guest characters include Larry Koopa, Wendy O. Koopa, Ludwig von Koopa, Diddy Kong, Rosalina, Toadette (who is the game’s sole newcomer), Dr. Eggman Nega, Jet the Hawk, Rouge the Bat, Zavok, Zazz, and Espio the Chameleon. In order to unlock these guest characters, players had to progress through the game’s story mode.